ISKCON Temple NVCC in Kondhwa

ISKCON is a wealthy organisation and it shows in their new temple recently opened (inaugurated by our president Pranab Mukherjee) in Kondhwa (Earlier got confused with Kothrud!). This one is called NVCC – New Vedic Cultural center and has grand plans. The one in Kothrud has also a Balaji temple, a replica of the Tirupati temple.

Construction is still on (as of Mid-April 2013). The temple is architecturally very beautiful and nothing has been spared to make the interiors very appealing. The central hall has huge carvings on the roof with central dome depicting Krishna and Radha. The corridors around the main hall have murals depicting various mythological stories and also many from Krishna’s upbringing.

There are three main “deities” – Sri Sri Radha Vrindavanachandra, Sri Sri Gaur Nitai & Jagannath, Baldev & Subhadra. There is also an idol of Sri Prabhupada, the founder of the ISKCON movement.

The darshan timings – the times when the door of the deities are open to the public are given below. The temple is also well-lit during the evening and it is a beautiful sight.

Kichdi is served free of cost through out the day. ISKCON also runs a Govinda restaurant which serves regular vegetarian fare like dosas, parathas and some sweets. The first time i went, it was during the lunch time and hence there was not much activity. The second time, i went during the late evening and darshan was on along with a bhajan. The bhajan along with the dholak and other instruments produced a mesmerizing noise. People were dancing in the central hall and it was almost a trance like situation. The energy was unbelievable and it would almost be impossible to resist the urge to dance!

On a personal note, i am not a big fan of ISKCON, because of various reasons. Anyway, the temple is a nice place to visit. Go there, enjoy the music and experience the amazing energy. Up to you, whether you want to join and become spiritually engaged with ISKCON!

Very beautiful temple…..a must visit place for everyone to get a glimpse into rich spiritual culture and values of india. Unfortunately people comment based on the externals that they see and rather than going in details. ISKCON is helping us remain connected to the our culture by offering so many courses, discussions etc. Let us take benefit of it.

A grand temple.. nice to visit even if you are not very religious.. there are 2 temples in the same premise.. one of krishna, balaram and subhadra; and the other one of Balaji (pics of deity not listed above). Even Khichdi prasad is very tempting. Temple is very GRAND, clean and well maintained.

My friend got connected to ISKCON when we were in college in 4th year.He got fell into trap of Iskcon . I met him again after my college days. To my surprise the person who once was addicted to drinking, who was a chain smoker,who used to drink with me daily suddenly got changed.
He left these all things.He looked very sober, composed and intellectual.I now feel that he entered into right hands.Although I cannot be equal to him, but slowly I will learn many things from him.

It seems Iskcon Pune is a wealthy organisation and after takng the Darshan of such a huge temple its hard to digest that ISKCON pune is not that wealthy. But the fact is that ISKCON still needs money to construct the unaccomplished part of the temple and if one ask’s question how this temple was build , its actually a long story. In short ‘everything that glitters is not gold’

But in any case ISKCON’s moto is always to serve people and to spiritually enlightened them.